Why You Should Care About Influencer Marketing

When was the last time you bought something because a celebrity told you to? Probably never. The reality is that only 3% of consumers are positively impacted by celebrity endorsements. Which is fine, because you can’t afford a celebrity anyway, and if you could, it wouldn’t be a good use of your marketing dollars. I bet your banner ads aren’t working very well these days either.

Ok, so what are we going to do? It turns out, people buy from people.

Your neighbour is a more powerful celebrity than Kim Kardashian.

For this reason alone you should care about influencer marketing. The internet has changed the way that we define and connect with our communities. Communities are forming naturally on social media around really specific topics, like mountain biking, youth hockey, gluten free cooking, and even airport carpets. These communities are being led by real people.

So, if you were selling a gluten-free, sugar-free, vodka beverage that’s a healthy alternative, wouldn’t you want to know who’s leading communities around healthy lifestyles?

Influencer marketing creates a real opportunity for your brand to make genuine connections, which are important. Millenials are 70% more likely to purchase a product that’s been recommended by someone in their personal network. And 44% of women who consider themselves media savvy say their purchase decisions are impacted by trusted influencers.

The key word there is “trusted”: authenticity has real value that can be translated into dollars. There’s a lot you can do to get started:

understand your social communities

find out who’s leading them

create personas around who would make the ideal influencer for your brand

use tools like Google, Twitter, and Socialpeeks to find the people who will make the biggest impact on your business

Learn more about influencer marketing and starting a movement at socialpeeks.com!